To our High School wrestlers, parents and coaches. I just wanted to say a few words about getting your tournament time in, whether at a tournament like Super 32 or Blue Chip, or especially like the USA Pre Season Folkstyle Nationals.

For various reasons I am encouraging participate in as many tournaments as you can, but especially I would recommend those local tournaments and the USA Pre Season Folkstyle Nationals.

Here is my reasoning, first, the local tournaments like Blue Chip have been there all along helping our wrestlers. They have been there to support us, our wrestlers should be there to support them. I can speak firsthand of the love for the sport that the guys at Blue Chip have. Yes they make money from the tournaments, but so what, I would challenge they give because they love the sport, and I think some would be surprised at how little they may make after they provide payment for venues, tournaments and so forth.

Next I think a national caliber tournament like the Pre Season USA Folkstyle Nationals is important. Brian Keck is a wrestler who is putting this tournament on. Brian is a great guy who has wrestled on an international level for our Country, and now coaches and supports our sport. Brian ‘no neck’ Keck is a great guy who is an animal on the mat and a teddy bear off the mat. He has done something I appreciate, that is work with USA Wrestling to put on this tournament. That’s right this is a sanctioned USA Wrestling sanctioned tournament. It is close in proximity as far as national tournaments go for our High School wrestlers, and is a doable tournament, which in the pre season is rather important. USA Wrestling is still the largest stage as coaches look at her magazines, web sites and so forth. USA Wrestling, understandably so, will promote, and report on it’s sanctioned tournaments more than any other.

Now on a personal note, I know another reason these tournaments are important, they get you attention. The truth is, you need as many tournaments like this as you can to get the attention of coaches. Thankfully I have been speaking to a number of coaches lately; they are asking about preseason tournaments and have mentioned the importance of them. For many of those coaches, they are requesting to know tournaments so they can come see the wrestlers they are looking at. This is important, albeit not the end all to meet all needs. I have recently seen wrestlers sign at colleges that have loosing records or have been defeated numerous times by Kansas wrestlers. Some of those wrestlers are getting opportunities to wrestle on a D1 level when some of our Kansas wrestlers are being looked over. I don’t know why we don’t take notice of this, but I know it to be a fact, not an assumption. We at USAWKS talk about doing what is best for our wrestlers, and for our sport. Without providing opportunity, and encouraging our wrestlers to get as much recognition and notice as possible, we are not doing the best we can for our wrestlers.

My hope, and yes, even my prayer, is that all of Kansas can come together to do what is best for our sport, and more importantly, the young men and women in our sport. I believe that starts with getting exposure where we can for them, there is few places better to do that than on a national stage.

you said it but why can't kansas put on a meet after football and before wrestling starts. there are a lot of good wrestlers in kansas as well as other states that have some of the better kids that should be wrestling playing football that can not get away at this time, your right the kids should be in a big tournament and let a lot of schools see what kansas has but football is going on at the same time and its all but impossible for them to get away. Mike its a great idea but how.

Tom I would love to see Kansas put on the "big" tournament. There was talk several years ago about Super 32 doing something in Kansas but they kind of got blasted here on the Kansas forums and decided to stay away, can you imagine that, with what Super 32 has become and having something like that here. The facts are, we need someone with the time and initial up front money to do it. I don't think we can, or should take lightly what Blue Chip is doing though. The facts are they are putting on a terrific series of tournaments. I did a break down last year as to the winners at Super 32 Vs. the winners of The Blue Chip Fall Brawl. I actually think the winners going against each other would have provided a pretty close dual. I may be in the miniority there, but the truth is, we already have a great tournament in the Kansas City Area. I know that the Roller tournaments in Oklahoma are also great. Unfortunately, there are 2 - 3 major tournaments that could host our high school kids if our state rules didn't prevent it. I know Will Cokely has proposed changes here and couldn't agree more. With Cliff Keen, The Oklahoma Open, Edmond Pre-Turkey, and several others there is a good number of tournaments that one could wrestle in just across the state line. I know we try to take boys down each year for a tournament at Catoosa and the next morning at Broken Arrow in the Tulsa area. We have had good representation there in the past, and expect we will again this year. Those however, with the exception of Fall Brawl, The Oklahoma Open, just don't compare on a national level with the likes of the Pre Season USA Folkstyle Nationals in Des Moines and Super 32 in Greensboro.

Regarding football, the only way I know to make it possible for some of these tournaments is to see if they would allow a night before weigh in. I know that on a HS level this is a big deal, but otherwise, I will admit, regarding the football players, I just don't have the answer.

Mike- Thanks for the words of encouragement! You are 100% accurate about why we do these tournaments. People would be surprised to see that there is very little profit in most of our tournaments. And a majority of that profit goes to the host school or club.

No problem it has been obivious over the years why you guys do what you do. I just found out today from reading a post at the mat that Folkstyle Nationals are on one of the days Nate is scheduled to take the ACT so he won't be able to go there, but I am very grateful you guys do what you do. I still hope folks get to go to as many preseason tournaments as they can, and so far I am willing to stil work on the bus and getting kids to the Preseason folkstyle nationals in Des Moines, unfortunately, I have only had 3 so far indicate they would be interested in a charter bus. I am still willing to work on this for others but need more interest shown than this. We will be at Fall Brawl though and know it will be a top notch quality tournament.

They counted Kansas twice as a state...suppose they meant to count Arkansas?